ByteDance rented one fifth of all Chinese data centre capacity.
ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, occupies about a fifth of China’s data centre capacity already in operation.
It rents nearly all of that capacity, SemiAnalysis reported on 25 September. The research firm called ByteDance "the single most important customer." It said the same was true for every operator that rents large amounts of data centre space and power to customers.
China now has more than 1,000 data centres run by over 60 operators, with about 24 gigawatts of capacity. "Bigger than EMEA. Bigger than the rest of Asia," SemiAnalysis wrote, using EMEA to mean Europe, the Middle East and Africa. About 20 gigawatts more is being built.
The US gap is permits. Chinese developers routinely deliver a data centre site with 100 megawatts of capacity within 12 months. In the US, construction takes 12 to 18 months after permits take 12 to 13 months, the report says.
Spending is climbing too. Alibaba Group, Tencent and Baidu spent a combined $20 billion on buildings and equipment in the second quarter, more than double the amount a year earlier. Each had negative free cash flow, meaning its cash from operations did not cover its capital spending. SemiAnalysis found that this happened to all three at the same time for the first time.
If one tenant filled a fifth of your data centre provider's space, would you still expect to be its priority?
Image: AI-generated.
Sources
Our file on ByteDance
All 2 ByteDance storiesEvery story here is open to read. The ERP LEADERS brief goes one step further.
The week in enterprise software, in one email: the stories that mattered, the failures with their figures, one case taken apart. Read a sample or sign up for the brief.
Welcome back. · Issue 01
